ETA: Here’s a good example. Our current protocol for when school is in session is face shields AND masks at all times. I think lots of people, kids and adults, will violate that rule at least a little. I think if the only way to stop a cluster is face mask and shield at all times, it’s not possible to safely have school.
You are confused because it is confusing.
Elmhurst public had planned on hybrid but is now all remote with possible transition later. Meanwhile IC (Immaculate Conception) in Elmhurst is in person with a huge waiting list. Also the Catholic High School that attracts many from all over the western burbs, Fenwick, is hybrid. Lombard is similar Elmhurst, all remote with possible transition in a few weeks. Villa Park public full remote. Most High School sports closed but many kids on club sport teams that cross over towns as do churches and private schools. Dupage County under 15/100K cases and under 5% positivity.
Maybe judge based on infections among Catholics compared to others?
The presumption that teachers are otherwise completely self-isolating or otherwise without any risks is in … many … cases untrue. You assume your conclusion in advance.
They don’t have to be perfectly self-isolating. They just have to be on average less exposed than they would be at work. Presumably they will continue to maintain their current set of risky behaviors, and now add to it a new set of risks. It’s hard to see how that doesn’t raise the absolute number of cases.
And I will say, lots of us that are in areas that are current shitshows are running pretty scared and staying pretty isolated. Plenty aren’t. But there is still going to be a dramatic uptick of aggregate exposure when we all go back to work.
I didn’t know that. We have a middle school right down the street, and I checked on-line yesterday. Tho the site was confusing, I thought it said what I indicated. We were curious, as we had not noticed the normal morning traffic.
Seems like many of the schools recently retrenched from planned opening plans. I know my kid was very disappointed when Lombard decided NO in person for her starting kindergartener. She said yesterday they completed all the assignments/activities in 10 minutes - followed by a lengthy “recess”! Fortunately, my kid is a youth librarian and SIL works IT at the Field, so they go nuts w/ home enrichment. But this kid REALLY would benefit from the socialization/tutelage…
As my personal examples showed, things like carpooling and the heat making most of the staff to be indoors, there is no need to make guesses about how the risks increase. They do and the results are not pretty.
Man, am I happy I’m not a parent. I just checked this site, and it sure seems to say classes will be in person. I admit I did not conduct an exhaustive search, and I assume parents have access to some other info, but frustrating that a resident/taxpayer can’t get clearer info.
BTW - as I started this post I got a notice telling me I had responded to you 3x in this thread, and asking me to involve other people. God, that’s as annoying as Clippy!
Meanwhile, in Florida:
That sounds like a good policy. It does seem like it’s excessive, but I feel it’s the minimum level of PPE to keep staff and students safe. If it can keep hospital workers safe, then it should be good for schools. There should be very little environmental contamination, so people who take off their PPE for a short while should have a very low chance of being infected.
Hell, my wife was in a suburban Chicago Walmart yesterday, and observed 2 adult males maskless Incredible!
Nothing wrong with overkill but we medical workers do not routinely wear that other than for very specific circumstance. I see kids of all ages, am in their faces having them take down their face coverings to say ah, all day, am seeing kids 10 and under with colds and fevers, masked. Face shield goes on for strep swabs.
I’d argue overkill IS wrong when it makes a system unworkable. At some point, if we have to have a mask, a face shield, a piece of plexiflass, and 6 feet to do this . . .I don’t think we can do this. It’s the worst possible compromise
As I’ve said above, based on my experience in CA (and my sister’s in MO) I don’t think it is the best policy to leave it up to the school districts.
CA didn’t mandate a blanket policy, but rather put quantitative metrics out that the counties had to hit, and a waiver process if you didn’t hit your metric but you still thought you could open safely and had a plan for it. That accounts for COVID-19 affecting different areas very differently.
I guess if the kids need to have schooling this year, we are going to have to pick the system which is the least worst system. There’s not going to be a best system. Although remote learning is safer, it has a host of other problems. But realistically, school districts and parents aren’t going to take the steps necessary to keep schools safe, so it’s not really going to be viable to have on-campus school safe. At least your school has a policy which has the potential to keep it safe. The schools which are mask-optional are doomed to failure.
I haven’t really changed my position on this.
There is no way to make things 100% safe. Schooling is important and remote learning inferior. Opening schools is more important than opening bars. Masks are cheap. Handwashing is cheap. Physical distancing is expensive due to school design and impractical since I don’t think kids or university students will always do it.
So use masks. Use cohorting, where the same kids are together. Test often. Don’t freak out with some expected increase. Give PPE and perhaps bonus pay to teachers. Expect 10-30% of parents to opt out due to understandable anxiety, regardless of whether it is quite safe or moderately so. Respect this right. Follow which other countries have opened schools and follow best practices. Don’t open if the community spread or ICUs are not in control.
Does anyone know if this new CDC advice means that if kids or teachers are positive, we should no longer isolate or test their close contacts?
Would you give the same advice regardless of the amount of COVID in the community?
No. Ultimately, there needs to be buy in by a majority of teachers, parents and government. It is possible that trust in government has been undermined in communities where long delays in mandating good practices have led to high case numbers. Opening will foreseeablely increase case numbers. So if hospital or ICU capacity is already concerning, these areas should likely remain closed. They should probably also remain closed in areas where the curve has not yet flattened, but this should be weighed against local advice and the experiences of other areas. No point in opening to close two days later. There needs to be testing in place and plans in advance for what is acceptable. It might make more sense to open for under-tens, test before and in two weeks, use masks and cohorting, and open for others if things go well.
When you say “opt out,” do you mean opting out of wearing masks or of attending school?
I hope your district doesn’t go by the new guidelines since they were “pressured from the top down” to change the testing guidelines. The new guidelines have come under heavy fire from experts such as Angela Rasmussen, a virologist from Columbia University: “Now what the hell kind of CDC recommendation is this? We need to be doing MORE testing, not less,” she wrote.